Peninsula Astronomical
Society
The new Peninsula Astronomical Society member's website:
http://www.pastro.org
Meeting Location
PAS Summer Calendar
The July PAS Meeting will be 'Instrument Night'.
We will meet
outside in the Foothill Observatory
Parking Lot.
It is expected there will be no PAS August meeting at Foothill College
due to the two other August activities.
There will be a
PAS-SMCAS Star BQ at Hidden Villa, August
7.
Yosemite Glacier Point expedition with the PAS
August 13 and 14, 2010.
|
Announcements
Posted by Ginger Wolnik at
07-14-2010 01:25 PM |
Subject: USGS
July 29 Evening Public Lecture in Menlo Park
When: Thursday, July
29, 2010, 7:00PM
Where:
USGS, Conference Room A, Bldg 3,
Menlo Park,
California
Who: Ron
Beck, USGS Land Remote Sensing Program
What: Looking
Down On Our Planet:
New
satellite imagery reveals a changing global surface
For nearly 40 years the USGS has been using satellites
to observe dramatic changes in Earth's surface features
such as shifting patterns of land use, expanding urban
growth, changing agricultural areas, and the extraction
of natural resources.
describing how Landsat images are also being
used to monitor potential natural disasters like
hurricanes, wildfires, and flooding, and
recording the environmental impact of human
disasters like the Chernobyl incident and the
ongoing consequences of the Deepwater Horizon
oil spill.
|
Related Activities this summer
Fremont Peak Star BQ,
July 17
|
Announcements
Posted by Ken Lum at 07-08-2010
06:45 AM |
Subject: Next
PAS mtg.
Our
next PAS General meeting will be held this Friday, July 9 at
7:30PM at Foothill
Community College in Los Altos Hills. Instead of
going to our usual
meeting room, we will gather at Parking Lot #4
adjacent to the
Foothill College Observatory for our annual
Instruments Night. At
this meeting, we invite everyone to bring a
favorite telescope
and/or accessory(ies) to show and tell to those
who attend. This
meeting will be particularly useful to those who are
contemplating the
purchase of a new telescope or binoculars and want
advice on what to get.
Advanced observers who think they already have
everything will also
become acquainted with some new and unusual
accessories, some of
which I will bring. Some of the newer
accessories are
courtesy of Orion Telescopes and Binoculars in
Cupertino to whom we
are most grateful. In particular, I will bring a
new kind of red
observer's light, an iOptron computerized GOTO
altazimuth mount, and
the Collins I3 Night Vision photomultiplier
eyepiece. Other items
of interest not listed here will also be
brought for everyone to
sample.
After
the show and tell session we will have a star party with these
telescopes and
binoculars to observe our favorite astronomical
objects. In addition,
the Foothill 16" will also be open as scheduled
after 9PM. So bring
your favorite astro-stuff down and share with
your friends for a
fun-filled evening! I also would not mind if you
bring items down for
sale if anyone wants to set up a small swap meet.
Don't
forget that parking is still $2.00. Furthermore, we will have some
food and drink at the Observatory so we can make this a bit of a
real party as well! Hope to see you all at the
Foothill Observatory!
|
|
Announcements
Posted by William at 07-07-2010
10:44 PM |
Subject:
Foothills Park public star party NEXT Saturday, July 17
The next Palo Alto Foothills
Park public star party will be
held NEXT Saturday, July 17 (not this coming Saturday).
Sunset is at 8:28 pm; a 43% waxing crescent Moon sets at
12:01 am on Sunday.
The park
entrance WILL CLOSE promptly at 8:30 pm - please plan on
arriving before then! Astronomers may stay later if they wish
and a PAS officer is present to hold the gate key. In the event
of rain this event is canceled.
As usual, anyone bringing a telescope gets in free and does
not need to be a Palo Alto resident. If asked, tell them at the
gate that you are an amateur astronomer participating in the
public star party. This event is organized by PAS but you do not
need to be a PAS member to participate. The view from Vista Hill
is quite pleasant - bring a picnic supper and come early to
watch the sunset!
Foothills
Park is approximately 3 miles up Page
Mill Road from Highway 280; the entrance is at the apex of a
hairpin turn and pretty easy to find. The star party itself is
held on Vista Hill, the highest spot in the
park that you can drive to. Ask the ranger at the gate
for directions or simply follow the signs. Astronomers may drive
past the cones blocking the road and park
at the top of the hill (assuming there is room left - the
limited parking fills up quickly!).
For further
information contact myself at
pastro(at)meier-phelps.com or Ranger Curt Dunn at
curt.dunn(at)cityofpaloalto.org
If you are planning
on going, please let me know so we will have an idea of how many
scopes we will have. (please reply to me directly, not
this email)
The next Foothills
Park Star Party after this one is
scheduled for August 13 (date subject to change, same as
Yosemite star party).
Sunset & Moon data from:
http://www.usno.navy.mil/USNO/astro...one-day-us
I will be returning from Tahiti on July 17, so it is unlikely
that I will be able to attend this event. Someone else will
need to be in charge and lock up at the end of the evening.
|
|
Announcements
Posted by William at 06-24-2010
12:19 PM |
Subject: June
"nite skies" now online - includes Yosemite signup info!
The June 2010 issue of the PAS newsletter "nite skies" is now
available online at:
www.pastro.org/dnn/Newsletter.aspx
This issue includes information on how to sign up for this year's
Glacier Point star party - don't miss it!!!
Paid PAS members
(who are registered on this site) can access a PDF file for nice,
pretty download, and everyone else can see the HTML version. While
you're there, check out the rest of the site, and if you haven't yet
done so, PLEASE REGISTER!
William P
|
|
Announcements
Posted by Andrew Pierce at
06-25-2010 03:23 PM |
Subject: FW:
Portola Valley town star party -- volunteers wanted.
The Portola Valley town star party is set this year for Friday,
August 13,
2010 at the Town Center on Portola Road. There will
be a triple conjunction
of Venus, Mars and Saturn with the thin
crescent moon that night just after
sunset.
We are still
looking for volunteers to set up scopes. I'm also thinking of
doing a workshop for people who own telescopes and have been
frustrated in
trying to use them. I think if someone brings in
their rig that five
minutes with an experienced person to talk
about eyepieces, how their mount
is intended to work, or how to
find stuff would do wonders in many cases.
We are also looking
for a speaker to entertain kids teens and their parents
during
the twilight.
Please contact me if interested in helping
Andrew Pierce
Apierce at pierceshearer.com
(edit by admin - this event occurs on the same date as the
PAS Glacier Point star party)
|
Links:
Foothill College Observatory telescope is maintained by PAS
and available for public use on many Friday nights including
after meetings on the second Friday of the month. ( weather permitting )
SF Area
current public events
In the eMail
San Mateo County Astronomical Society
Alcoat home page.
PAS imaging, special interest group.
Lick Observatory
 |
Plan to arrive after noon and before 3 PM for best access to Public
Areas.
This is an all day trip climbing to
4200 feet on the historic
Mount Hamilton Road, Route 130.
Alum Rock off of 101 or 680.
Please don't pass bicyclists
on the blind curves.
Gift Shop
|
Highway 130 is closed to visitors above
Grant's Ranch Park
during and after snow storms.
|
|
|
"From Eyeballs to Electrons" is the first online exhibit from the Lick
Observatory Historical Collections Project. The exhibit draws on artifacts and
images from Lick's collections to illustrate the evolution of light detection in
astronomy, with special attention to Lick Observatory's role. Part One begins
with astronomy's first detector, the human eye, and ends with photography's long
reign as the principal means for recording starlight. Part Two, coming this
spring, will describe the development of electronic detectors, culminating in
the digital age. Please visit the exhibit at:
http://collections.ucolick.org/exhibits_on_line/E2E.1/
The Historical Collections Project is a work in progress. It was created to
preserve and make accessible the observatory's historical holdings through
cataloging, online databases, and exhibits. Please visit the Project website at:
http://collections.ucolick.org/archives_on_line/
|
|
| |
 |
Previously:
|
Announcements, Posted by William at 06-09-2010
10:17 AM
|
Subject:
Foothills Park public star party this Saturday, June 12
The next Palo Alto Foothills
Park public star party will be held
this coming Saturday, June 12.
Sunset is at 8:30 pm; a New Moon sets at 9:09 pm.
The
park entrance WILL CLOSE promptly at 9:00 pm
- please plan on arriving before then! Astronomers may stay later
if they wish and a PAS officer is present to hold the gate key. In
the event of rain this event is canceled.
As usual, anyone bringing a telescope gets in free and does not
need to be a Palo Alto resident. If asked, tell them at the gate
that you are an amateur astronomer participating in the public star
party. This event is organized by PAS but you do not need to be a
PAS member to participate. The view from Vista Hill is quite
pleasant - bring a picnic supper and come early to watch the sunset!
Foothills Park
is approximately 3 miles up Page Mill Road from Highway 280; the
entrance is at the apex of a hairpin turn and pretty easy to find.
The star party itself is held on Vista Hill, the highest spot in the
park that you can drive to. Ask the ranger
at the gate for directions or simply follow the signs. Astronomers
may drive past the cones blocking the road and park
at the top of the hill (assuming there is room left - the limited
parking fills up quickly!).
For further information contact
myself at
pastro(at)meier-phelps.com or Ranger Curt Dunn at
curt.dunn(at)cityofpaloalto.org
If you are planning on
going, please let me know so we will have an idea of how many scopes
we will have. (please reply to me directly, not this email)
The next Foothills Park
Star Party after this one is scheduled for July 17.
Sunset &
Moon data from:
http://www.usno.navy.mil/USNO/astro...one-day-us
|
RTMC 2010 Review
|
Announcements
Posted by Ken Lum at 05-21-2010
01:01 AM |
| Subject: PAS mtg
today
The Birth of Star Clusters
by
Ken Lum
Come join us for our next PAS General meeting which will be held
a week later than usual on Friday, May 21 at 7:30PM due to my
being at the Riverside Telescope Makers Conference in southern
California during the weekend of May 14. We will meet at our new
meeting venue in Rm. 5015, Bldg. 5000 near Parking Lot #5 at
Foothill Community College in Los Altos Hills.
Our
speaker this month will be Dr. Steve Stahler of the University
of California, Berkeley who will talk on "The Birth of Star
Clusters". Some of the most breath-taking telescopic sights are
clusters of stars. We marvel at clusters of young stars like the
summertime Beehive Cluster and the wintertime Pleiades.
Globular star clusters, like the stunning cluster in Hercules,
are the most ancient and populous of all stellar groupings,
holding up to hundreds of thousands of aging stars.
In
this presentation, Dr. Stahler will discuss the origins of star
clusters ... and their fates. Stars are forming all around us,
all the time. While a few are clumped into these well-known
groups, the vast majority seem to be randomly scattered
throughout space. However, we have discovered that all stars are
in fact born into compact groups. These very young primordial
clusters can only be seen with the aid of infrared telescopes.
Once the young stars become visible, most are in loose clusters,
which disperse in a few million years. A small fraction are in
open clusters, which survive for a much longer time. Dr. Stahler
will discuss a unifying theory for this observed evolutionary
picture and draw the connection to globular clusters.
Dr.
Stahler is an astrophysicist and professor at U. C. Berkeley.
His research centers on the problem of star formation and
association. He is the coauthor of the first comprehensive
textbook in the field ("The Formation of Stars," Stahler &
Palla, Wiley-VCH, 2004). He has spoken to the PAS before about
the process of Star Formation and is one of the clearest and
most illuminating speakers we have ever been privileged to hear
from. I would encourage everyone to watch a recorded version of
his wonderful lecture on Star Formation at:
http://vimeo.com/4396891
before coming to the upcoming PAS talk on Star Clusters as a way
of becoming better prepared for what he has to say.
Other references that will be helpful include:
The
Long Lost Siblings of the Sun by Simon F. Portegies Zwart,
Scientific American, Nov. 2009
Cloudy with a Chance of Stars by Erick T. Young, Scientific
American, Feb. 2010
Besides contemplating the lives of stars, he contemplates the
lives of BART patrons, making a habit of sketching the variety
of faces he sees on his daily commute:
Don't forget that parking is $2.00 so bring some cash! Hope to
see you all there!
|
|
Announcements
Posted by William at 05-19-2010
08:52 AM |
Subject: May
newsletter now online - Foothills Park and Yosemite info!
The May 2010 issue of the PAS newsletter "nite skies" is now
available online at:
www.pastro.org/dnn/Newsletter.aspx
Paid PAS members (who
have registered on the site) can access a PDF file for nice, pretty
download, and everyone else can see the HTML version. While you're
there, check out the rest of the site, and if you haven't yet done
so, PLEASE REGISTER!
In case you haven't heard, we have
moved! This Friday's meeting will be held in room 5015, back where
we used to be.
William
Phelps
|
The PAS meeting in May will be on the third
Friday, May 21. ( no meeting the second Friday in May )
Announcements
Posted by Ken Lum
at
05-12-2010 09:09 AM |
| Subject: PAS
General mtg. on May 21 and NOT May 14
The Birth of Star Clusters
by Ken Lum
Come join us for our
next PAS General meeting which will be held a week later than usual
on Friday, May 21 at 7:30PM due to many PAS members being at the
Riverside Telescope Makers Conference in southern California during
the weekend of May 14. We will meet at our new meeting venue in Rm.
5015, Bldg. 5000 near Parking Lot #5 at Foothill Community College
in Los Altos Hills.
Our speaker this month
will be Dr. Steve Stahler of the University of California, Berkeley
who will talk on "The Birth of Star Clusters". Some of the most
breath-taking telescopic sights are clusters of stars. We marvel at
clusters of young stars like the summertime Beehive Cluster and the
wintertime Pleiades. Globular star clusters, like the stunning
cluster in Hercules, are the most ancient and populous of all
stellar groupings, holding up to hundreds of thousands of aging
stars.
In this presentation,
Dr. Stahler will discuss the origins of star clusters ... and their
fates. Stars are forming all around us, all the time. While a few
are clumped into these well-known groups, the vast majority seem to
be randomly scattered throughout space. However, we have discovered
that all stars are in fact born into compact groups. These very
young primordial clusters can only be seen with the aid of infrared
telescopes.
Once the young stars
become visible, most are in loose clusters, which disperse in a few
million years. A small fraction are in open clusters, which survive
for a much longer time. Dr. Stahler will discuss a unifying theory
for this observed evolutionary picture and draw the connection to
globular clusters.
Dr. Stahler is an
astrophysicist and professor at U. C. Berkeley. His research centers
on the problem of star formation and association. He is the coauthor
of the first comprehensive textbook in the field ("The Formation of
Stars," Stahler & Palla, Wiley-VCH, 2004). He has spoken to the PAS
before about the process of Star Formation and is one of the
clearest and most illuminating speakers we have ever been privileged
to hear from. I would encourage everyone to watch a recorded version
of his wonderful lecture on Star Formation at:
http://vimeo.com/4396891 before coming to the upcoming PAS
talk on Star Clusters as a way of becoming better prepared for what
he has to say.
Other references that
will be helpful include:
- The Long Lost Siblings of the Sun by Simon F. Portegies
Zwart, Scientific American, Nov. 2009
- Cloudy with a Chance of Stars by Erick T. Young, Scientific
American, Feb. 2010
Besides contemplating
the lives of stars, he contemplates the lives of BART patrons,
making a habit of sketching the variety of faces he sees on
his daily commute:
http://astro.berkeley.edu/~stahler/...ndex2.html
Don't forget that
parking is $2.00 so bring some cash! Hope to see you all there! I
will let everyone know later if there is to be dinner with the
speaker at Chef Chu's. Given the distance from Berkeley and Friday
afternoon traffic, I think this might be a bit iffy.
|
Subject: April newsletter now online, new meeting location
The April
2010 issue of the PAS newsletter "nite skies" is
now available online
at:
www.pastro.org/dnn/Newsletter.aspx
Paid PAS members (who have registered on the site) can access a PDF file
for nice,
pretty download, and everyone else can see the HTML version.
While you're there, check out the rest of the site, and if you haven't
yet done so, PLEASE REGISTER!
A message was posted to a forum you are
tracking:
Announcements
Posted by William at 05,10,2010
10:24 PM |
| Subject: Star
Party - Foothills Park, Saturday May 15
The first Palo Alto Foothills
Park public star party for 2010 will
be held on this coming Saturday, May 15.
Sunset is at 8:11 pm; a 4% waxing crescent Moon will set at 10:24
pm.
The park entrance WILL CLOSE
promptly at 11:00 pm - please plan on arriving before then!
Astronomers may stay later if they wish and a PAS officer is
present to hold the gate key. In the event of rain this event is
canceled.
I will not be able to attend this event - if you are willing and
able to be the gatekeeper please get in touch with me ASAP.
As usual, anyone bringing a telescope gets in free and does not need
to be a Palo Alto resident. If asked, tell them at the gate that you
are an amateur astronomer participating in the public star party.
This event is organized by PAS but you do not need to be a PAS
member to participate. The view from Vista Hill is quite pleasant -
bring a picnic supper and come early to watch the sunset!
Foothills Park is
approximately 3 miles up Page Mill Road from Highway 280; the
entrance is at the apex of a hairpin turn and pretty easy to find.
The star party itself is held on Vista Hill, the highest spot in the
park that you can drive to. Ask the ranger
at the gate for directions or simply follow the signs. Astronomers
may drive past the cones blocking the road and park
at the top of the hill (assuming there is room left - the limited
parking fills up quickly!).
For further information contact
myself at pastro(at)meier-phelps.com or Ranger Curt Dunn at
curt.dunn(at)cityofpaloalto.org
If you are planning on going,
please let me know so we will have an idea of how many scopes we
will have.
The next Foothills
Park Star Party after this one is
scheduled for June 12.
Sunset & Moon data from:
http://www.usno.navy.mil/USNO/astro...one-day-us
|
| Review of Brian
day's presentation at the April 9, PAS
Meeting. Bob Fies |
At the time of the
LCROSS impact there was some
disappointment among the press and amateur astronomers that the expected
impact plume did not appear. Nor was there any impact flash.
Amateurs
need not worry about their equipment because even the
Keck Telescope in Hawaii, the Hubble Space Telescope and
the flash camera in the LCROSS instrument package did not detect a
flash.
Previous missions have detected atomic hydrogen at the
lunar poles, particularly in deep, eternally shadowed craters. But
that data provided an inconclusive proof of the existence of water.
Detailed data from the infra red spectrometers on the LCROSS
instrument package have completed preliminary study and the results seem
to indicate there is a lot of water in these lunar craters.
The LCROSS impactor apparently hit
something relatively soft, ( like the surface of a comet? ) and formed a
crater about 30 feet in size. Data from the instrument package
indicate the presents of about 30 gallons of water thrown up by that
impact.
So if we jump to the conclusion that the previous data
regarding the presents of hydrogen was due to water on the moon then
there could be a great deal of water at the lunar poles. |
 |
Also, we have moved!
This Friday's meeting ( April 9 ) will be held in room 5015,
back where we used to be.
William P
Finding the PAS meeting
location.
The Fermi
Gamma-ray Space Telescope Preview,
Ken L
Happy New
Years and welcome to another year of outstanding lectures and presentations on
astronomy! Our next PAS General Meeting will be this Friday,
January 8 at 7:30PM
in our usual venue at Foothill Community College in Los Altos Hills in
Rm 8402, Bldg. 8400 next to Parking Lot#8 near the entrance to the College.
Our speaker will be Dr. Robert P. Johnson of the Physics Dept. at UC Santa
Cruz and Associate Director at the Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics.
His topic will be "The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope".
The Fermi
Gamma‐ray Space Telescope is a NASA mission in low‐Earth orbit to
observe high‐energy gamma rays from the cosmos. The telescope far
surpasses previous generations in its ability to detect and localize faint
gamma‐ray sources, as well as its ability to see 20% of the sky at any
instant and scan the entire sky every few hours. Since its launch one and a
half years ago on 11 June 2008, Fermi has opened a new and exciting
window on a variety of exotic astrophysical objects, including pulsars,
black holes, active galactic nuclei, and gamma‐ray bursts, and it will
enable new research on such topics as the origin and circulation of cosmic
rays and searches for hypothetical new phenomena such as annihilation of
supersymmetric dark matter. In addition to presenting early science results,
this talk includes an introduction to astronomy with gamma rays, descriptions
of the instruments and their fabrication, and descriptions of the mission
operations.
Dr. Robert
Johnson is the Associate Director of the Santa Cruz Institute for Particle
Physics. His research interests include the Fermi Gamma‐ray Space
Telescope for which he led the conceptual design and prototyping efforts for
the Large‐Area Telescope silicon‐strip tracker and managed the
engineering and fabrication of the tracker subsystem, the primary system for
detecting and tracking gamma rays, that is now functioning very well in orbit.
He is presently engaged in analysis of Fermi science data including detection
of radio‐quiet gamma‐ray pulsars and searches for
dark‐matter annihilation. He was also involved in the BaBar
experiment at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center which investigated the
asymmetries of matter and antimatter interactions and the ALEPH experiment at
CERN, the European Center for Nuclear Research in Switzerland which is part of
the complex search for the Higgs Boson, a particle thought to be necessary for
the existence of mass in matter
Excerpts from January 'Nite Skies' below.
Recent past months are at:
pas_recent_past.htm
